What Hagel’s Show Trial Means

It exposed a GOP that focuses on only one country, and it's not the United States.

If last week’s hearing for Chuck Hagel raised questions about his capacity to be secretary of defense, the show trial conducted by his inquisitors on the tribunal raised questions about the GOP.

Is the Republican Party, as currently constituted, even capable of conducting a foreign policy befitting a world power? Or has it learned nothing and forgotten nothing since George W. Bush went home and the nation rejected John McCain for Barack Obama?

Consider the great foreign issues on the front burner today.

Will the Japan-China clash over islets in the South China Sea, now involving warplanes and warships circling each other, lead to a shooting war that could, because of our security treaty with Japan, drag in the United States?

Is China an economic rival and trade partner? Or is Beijing seeking strategic and military hegemony in East Asia and the Western Pacific? Is engagement or containment of this emerging superpower the way to go?

Is Vladimir Putin’s Russia friend or foe? Has the “reset” failed?

How many troops should we leave in Afghanistan to prevent its receding into the Taliban darkness, as it did when the Red Army departed in 1989?

Is Iraq, where we lost 4,600 soldiers and 35,000 wounded in a misbegotten war to strip that country of WMD it did not have, about to disintegrate into civil, sectarian and ethnic war? After Bashar Assad falls, will Syria fall to Islamists—or fall apart?

Is Egypt’s military chief correct when he said that the violent eruptions after President Mohammed Morsi’s attempted seizure of dictatorial power could imperil the state itself?

Should the presence of al-Qaida in Mali cause the United States to deepen its military involvement in sub-Saharan Africa? Or does the rancid fruit of NATO’s intervention in Libya to save Benghazi, now an Islamist no man’s land for Westerners, argue for
staying out?

Before going ahead with a sequester of Pentagon funds, ought we not first review and reduce the treaty commitments our military is required to honor, many dating back over half a century? All these issues were there to be discussed with Hagel.

Yet, according to Jim Lobe of Inter Press Service, who reviewed the transcript of Hagel’s eight hours of testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, there were more mentions of Israel, 178, than of Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, Palestine and Palestinians, North Korea, Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, China, NATO, Libya, Bahrain, Somalia, al-Qaida, Mali, Jordan, Turkey, Japan and South Korea combined.

In the runup to the Hagel hearings, North Korea tested an intercontinental rocket and indicated a third nuclear bomb test may be imminent. Dictator Kim Jong Un said the “target” of these tests is that “sworn enemy of the Korean people,” the U.S.A.

Yet North Korea was mentioned only 11 times in Hagel’s day-long testimony, while Iran was mentioned 170 times.

But Iran has no missile that can reach the United States, has never tested a nuclear device or bomb, has no nuclear weapons program, according to the unanimous verdict of our 16 intelligence agencies, has never enriched uranium to weapons grade, and has all of its
nuclear facilities under constant U.N. surveillance and inspection.

Far from threatening America with nuclear fire like North Korea’s 20-something dictator, the Ayatollah Khamenei has declared a fatwa against Iran’s ever possessing atomic weapons.

This is no brief for a Tehran regime that is no friend of this country. But to suggest Iran cannot be contained as the nuclear-armed Soviet Union of Stalin and China of Mao were contained is absurd.

Whom has Iran attacked in the 33 years since the old ayatollah came back from Paris, while Uncle Sam has attacked or invaded Grenada, Panama, Haiti, Libya twice, Iraq twice, Afghanistan and Serbia?

Query: What is behind this Republican preoccupation, bordering on obsession, with Israel and its nemesis Iran, to the near exclusion of other threats and dangers faced by our country all over a world that is a good bit larger than one small corner of the Middle East? Has Sheldon Adelson replaced Henry Kissinger as the eminence grise of the GOP?

Sen. Lindsey Graham implied it was an outrage to suggest any senator may have been intimidated by an Israeli lobby that has on its wall the scalps of two chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: J.W. Fulbright and Charles Percy.

Who is Lindsey kidding?

Did Bibi Netanyahu, after dissing the U.S. president in the Oval Office, receive those 29 standing ovations at a joint session of Congress, thereby breaking Stalin’s all-time record before the Supreme Soviet, because Bibi gave one helluva speech?

In this city, the Israeli lobby is regarded as right up there with the National Rifle Association as a crowd that rewards its friends and punishes its enemies, with this exception: Far more congressmen and senators are willing to stand up to the NRA than to defy AIPAC.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. Where is the vision that Republicans had in the time of Reagan?

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23 Responses to What Hagel’s Show Trial Means

“Query: What is behind this Republican preoccupation, bordering on obsession, with Israel and its nemesis Iran, to the near exclusion of other threats and dangers faced by our country all over a world that is a good bit larger than one small corner of the Middle East?”

My guess is they’re pandering to all the evangelical “end times” nuts running loose. That’s at least part of it.

I wish I could have answered for Hagel when Graham laughably asked that him to name one person intimidated by the Israel lobby.

“Well senator, I could name about 535, but that would take a while. Should I start with the ones sitting right in front of me?”

Can anyone imagine a job interview that goes down like the one put on for Mr. Hagel? It really was a show trial. I have no idea (still!) if Mr. Hagel would be a good Sec. Def. but I certainly don’t begrudge the man for just sitting there and letting the kooks rant and rave without challenge. The only reasonable response beyond silence would be to challenge them to a duel.

What Hagel’s confirmation hearings also confirmed was the embarrassing inability of Hagel’s opponents to mobilize the American voter to give a damn. Neo-cons carry around megaphones mainly shouting at each other. I hear the air hissing out of the balloon. My anecdotal contribution is the contact with a growing number of especially younger Americans who are tired of both Israel and its enemies. It’s not so much an “America First” generation as a “Fix America First” generation. Pat has lived to see his foreign policy views become increasingly mainstream.

The dems move the line 10 feet to the left. The gop (Rove, Boehner) walks two feet to the left and says “no further” and start arguing about the move and about those who complain. The dems move the line 10 feet to the left. The gop walks to the old 10 foot line plus two feet and say “no further” and start arguing about the move and about those who complain. The dems move the line 10 feet to the left.

Evangelicals (holding their nose) voted in droves for the Catholic Santorum while the Catholic voters stayed home. Santorum didn’t have a chance in Pennsylvania because of the Catholic non-vote. We have the Catholics Pelosi, Biden, the Kennedies, etc., moving the country to the left by gaps (and don’t forget the sweet Moynihan) and you’re talking about Hagel and the evil neocons? (I believe that you are a Catholic.)

1) Abortion (millions are dying every year), 2) The creation of gays out of thin air and forcing me to agree with them, 3) I am not allowed to start a business in America without killing babies (Obama’s mandate) . 4) I was required to sell stocks at a huge loss in America otherwise I would be supporting companies that are forced to kill babies (Obama’s mandate). 5) North Korea has nukes (thanks to Clinton) and soon missiles to deliver them (Iran soon to follow). 6) The Atheists in China (who view humans as only mere molecules) by their very religion/philosophy could not think it wrong if hundreds of millions of their own people died, not to mention ours. 7) The dems (above) have effectively made it illegal to be a Christian in America except, for now, if you go into a church and close the door.

It’s sickening that no politician or heavyweight in the MSM came to Hagel’s defense after this star chamber proceeding, except for one guy from MSNBC. No one dared suggest these “senators” were rude, inappropriate and un-American to the core. Kudos to Pat for getting it right, as always.

Cut to the quick and stop asking the questions we all know the answers to. I for one am looking forward to the fall of christian zionism from our halls of power. The republican party expose’ must continue with the oil and gas and military industrial complex lobby. Conflict with china is just what the chinese want to unburden themselves of too many boys breathing too much soot. Building more multibillion dollar targets for cheap chinese missiles may make some people money but is not a viable deterrent strategy. Have you seen our raptors flying around? Well, if you do then also look around for the little chinese boy with his ipad flying the thing. The Koreans? Start parachuting loaves of bread into their cities as gifts from middle america. The kooks with the big hats won’t last long when the population starts enjoying a cheesburger and fries while listening to John’s Imagine. Sanctions punish the minds and hearts and empower tyrants who can rightly point outside their country as reason for the people’s problems. Get Smart or let chaos continue to make money off conflict.

Leo, you & Pat both nailed it. As a patriotic American, it was so heartbreaking to watch that hearing last week and observe the GOP’s capitulation to the pro-Israeli lobby. Although you call it a “Fix America First” generation, I have watched with despair as the neocons have allowed America’s foreign policy in the Middle East to be turned into a Middle East policy now outsourced to a foreign power…go ahead and add that to the list of things that need to be fixed!

The Republican senators are under the influence of the most aggressive elements of the neoconservative and Israeli lobby.

The question is whether the American People support this supine posture (and most important, whether rank-n-file Republicans support U. S. senators licking their master’s hand in such a public fashion).

The GOP senators sounded like a bunch of hookers in an old 1970s exploitation “gritty street film”, blasting the “new girl” for having the nerve to say that their Pimp isn’t the end all and be all of their existence.

And just like the “new girl” in those cheap flicks, the Pimp’s Stable manage to break the new girl’s will, and bring her around to joining them in gladly doing the Pimp’s bidding.

The only difference between the Pimp’s Stable and those senators, is that the Stable willing acknowlege that they’re whores.

It is very, very strange that Mr. Hagel had to spend so much time answering bizarre, irrelevant questions about Israel. What about the places where our own troops are stationed? What about NATO? What about China? What about the looming Defense cuts?

No wonder our other allies look on and shake their heads. It must be like watching an old friend destroying himself with alcohol or drugs.

It would be useful if Americans would more often read Flavius Josephus’s The Jewish War, the account written by a Jew from a priestly family who fought as an officer in that war against Rome on the Jewish side. According to Josephus the Romans were under strict orders to protect Jerusalem and the Temple. It was only the relentless, hot-headed foolishness of Jewish Zealots attacking their fellow Jews as well as the Romans that brought on the end. The fire that destroyed the temple was started by Jews themselves, and more deaths in the city were the product of Jews killing Jews than deaths at the hands of the Romans. The prophets had half a millennium before warned Israel and Judah against the foreign alliances and internal feuding that destroyed Israel the first time. We should also remember that the Shah of Iran who freed Israel from her Babylonian Captivity and paid in part for the rebuilding of the Temple. If Jews have an eternal right to Jerusalem, then surely they also owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Iran.

For anyone with an understanding of Israel’s history, it should be difficult to imagine anything less Biblical and more generally heedless than taking an “Israel right or wrong” position. According to the Western religious vision of the world, Israel was chosen to become an example, and when she flagrantly chose again and again the wrong course, the selfish, materialistic, path of secular power with internal contention, Israel did become an example. As promised by her prophets she was destroyed for disobedience. Israel is once more playing out all of the follies of her past, and for the Americans to follow the hype instead of the message, has guaranteed her a destruction on a par with those disasters that repeatedly follow Israel’s arrogant follies.

It is difficult to understand Senate Republican’s slavish devotion to Zionism and eagerness to commit mass murder against Muslims in general and Persians in particular. Mere corruption seems insufficient to explain it.

And it’s not just the Republicans of course. With a few possible exceptions, U.S. Senators are for sale and therefor traitors. The Senate itself is a cesspool of treachery and corruption.

So what makes the wicked so strong? In the case of the U.S. Senate it’s us. It’s the continuing support by the people of the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Iraq “war” was bi-partisan. The Vietnam war was bi-partisan.

If you have not already done so please consider withdrawing your support from the legacy parties.

Will the Japan-China clash over islets in the South China Sea, now involving warplanes and warships circling each other, lead to a shooting war that could, because of our security treaty with Japan, drag in the United States?

God forbids, of course. But should this come down to a naval conflict, Japanese MSDF (especially its extremely capable submarine force) is more than capable to return the whole issue back to the negotiating table pretty fast. The issue will be the control of possible escalation–this is a serious question.

It’s more than a quibble to suggest that Reagan also was pretty much under the impress of the Zionist Lobby, yet I suppose we must allow Pat to wax nostalgic about an era that never was-at least since maybe the 1920s.

That is the biggest crime the nominee has committed, and he’s being raked over the coals as a result.

In addition to the apostasy of accepting a job offer from the hated Obama administration, he has committed the ultimate affront to Israel…that of being only 97 percent supportive of everything they do.

Obama himself has been tarred with this brush. His failure to prostrate himself before “Bibi” led to charges that he’d be more than happy to assist the terrorists in their alleged mission to wipe Israel from the map.

AIPAC-driven hysterics aside, I do think it is prudent for the next Secretary of Defense – and the newly minted Secretary of State, for that matter – to focus on the Middle East more than all the other “threats” Pat listed. That is the region of the world where the most change is happening the most rapidly. The old policy of “just do whatever Israel wants” is out the window. The old policy of “just support the anti-communists” is out the window.

We’re facing a minefield over there, and having a guy in the driver’s seat who has actually walked through minefields is not a bad idea.

The time to end the entangling alliance with Israel is now! Will it take civil war for the US to free itself from the tentacles of this ethno-nationalist apartheid state menace? Will AIPAC ever be recognized for what it is, an agency of a foreign power?

Pat, in 2006, 2008 and 2012 we hoped that the Republican losses would cause that party to reform and throw out the neocons. Well here it is 2013, and it hasn’t happened, and I am giving up on it happening at all. Is this the best true conservatives can hope for? To sit and wait for the formerly conservative and patriotic Republican party to reform itself, only to be disappointed again and again? Pat, I know you and the GOP go way back, but the name of this magazine is The American Conservative, not The American Republican.

As for Lindsey denying AIPAC’s stranglehold – if you ask a “made man” in the Mafia if there is a Mafia, of course he’s going to deny it. Lindsey’s not much different than Joe Columbo.